Melanie’s feet burned as she raced across the rugged landscape under a blazing summer sun. Her running shoes were lightweight, but they weren’t very padded, so she felt every rock and pebble, not to mention the searing earth below. The air was thin and dry; her throat parched. Coughing and gasping for air, she stopped and leaned over, heaving and holding her side as a cramp overtook her. She’d been training for the marathon for months and thought she was ready, but nothing could’ve prepared her for this. The unexpected temperature change, the elevation, the terrain, and above all, the stiff competition.
Nobody expected them to be as advanced as they had become. The team had been developed at MIT in a secret lab, and trained by top athletes to duplicate every possible physical motion from walking to running to lifting and jumping. They had articulated limbs and could even dance with fluid motions, unlike their predecessors. Team iBot was dressed in neon green and the competition Team HuMn in hot pink. Buzzing drones captured and streamed live footage of the race through the dry hills of the southwest desert. By all accounts the robots were making gains and leading the race by a long shot. Melanie took a deep breath and willed herself to continue the course. Just as she hit her stride, she heard the sound of footsteps running up close behind her. As she turned, she momentarily glimpsed the iBot, staring at her with humanoid eyes and an expressionless face. When it passed her on the narrow path, she felt a sudden searing pain in her lower leg, and incapacitated, fell to the sandy soil, screaming in agony. She watched him turn back to glare with the semblance of a smile, before he continued full speed up a path that disappeared through the dry brush and over a hill into the distance towards the cheering crowds at the finish line.
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